What made the collaboration between the Chinese and the Europeans in the early colonial Maluku Islands different from the well-known cases in Manila and in Batavia? I think the answer lies in the...Show moreWhat made the collaboration between the Chinese and the Europeans in the early colonial Maluku Islands different from the well-known cases in Manila and in Batavia? I think the answer lies in the nature of Dutch policy in Maluku, monopoly, and the character of Chinese trade in Maluku, arbitrage, as well as their special relationship: strange monopoly vis-à-vis elusive arbitrage. By reading both Dutch and Chinese sources, I argue that, before Coen became the Governor-General of the VOC in 1618, Chinese traders, like many other Asian traders, made arbitrage between different counterparties in the world of Maluku, such as the Dutch, the Spaniards, and the local rulers, because their rivalry distorted commodities prices in local and global markets. After Coen became the Governor-General, he initially tried to expel all of Asian traders from the Maluku Islands, but, as this policy turned out to be impractical, he chose to leave the Chinese as “regulated arbitrageurs” to replace other “unregulated arbitrageurs” in order to maintain his strange monopoly policy.Show less
In the academic debate on the construction of international coca prohibition in the 1961 UN Convention, the focus is on the US - as the hegemonic power after the WWII- to have enforced these...Show moreIn the academic debate on the construction of international coca prohibition in the 1961 UN Convention, the focus is on the US - as the hegemonic power after the WWII- to have enforced these prohibition laws. The objective of this paper is to break out of the periphery-core thinking and understand the coca prohibition law from acknowledging the complex, multilateral actors in the global south. Therefore the research analyzes Peru’s position in the establishment of Coca-Cola’s legally binding monopoly on international coca trade by the concepts of international prohibition regimes, TNCs in the global political economy and game theory. Interestingly, the study reveals Peru’s influence on the Convention, which seems to have been ignored by south-north thinking.Show less
